VF-1Guy

I really like my BT Tracks and I especially like the yellow (it is often the first color I think of when I think of a 'vette), but I have to agree that it is mostly a robot-in-a-car-shell (my definition: if I look at the toy from the side or rear and see most the car parts in their natural order, then I consider it a robot-in-a-car-shell). I don't consider Smokescreen or Hound to be a robot-in-a-car-shell since almost all the car parts are integrated into the robot (the car parts are broken up, rotated and moved around to form a robot). I don't have Sideswipe/Deadend, so I can't comment on them. I figured Hasbro went with a red box to match the new Energon (Powerlinx Battles) colors. Hasbro changes box colors all the time and the color is seemingly random. If I remember right, Star Wars (PoTF2) started off in green, then went to purple (Shadows of the Empire) then to red, then to blue, then to a different blue, then to black. Fans can argue that all the stripe package types followed lightsaber colors. This is mostly true except that the first color change (the one that was done for an mostly Empire-centric story line) was to purple. The current G.I. Joe line went from whatever it was (black?), to bright green to whatever it is now. I think Hasbro changes the colors to keep the product looking new (and to sell a crap load of the same item to MOC collectors).

I agree with you on Track's head. I think it would have looked a lot better fully painted. Bare white plastic often looks cheap to me (plus it yellows). The red face (not like they had a choice really) doesn't help since it ends up looking flat. Silver reflects the light better so it is much easier to see the various surfaces.

I was going from memory on Grimlock. I should have looked before posting. The chest does fall into Type 1 - I guess we'll have to wait for a Type 3. It looks to me that Grimlock will be about as different from Smoke/Silver/Meister as Hound is. The legs are a new approach (eith seats for feets), the doors are in a different position (wohoo!) and the wheels are on the forearms instead of the shoulders.

I was feeling the same way, but it looks like it is getting better with Grimlock and Windcharger. The way I see it there are three major transformation types that have been shown. Each has a couple of variations... Type 1: Hood For A Chest Variation 1: Silverstreak, Smokescreen & Meister Variation 2: Hound (the feet, front tires and seats are different than above) Type 2: Set the Car on its Nose Variation 1: Sideswipe, Deadend & Windcharger(?) Variation 2: Tracks (the doors and rear end are different than above) Type 3: Set the Car on its Tail Variation 1: Grimlock I would like to see a truck like a Dodge Ram or a Jeep SUV.

I just got into this line recently. I had played with an Alt. Smokescreen when they first came out, but I avoided the line since I didn't like the plasticy look of the Alts and the price of the BTs. The nice metalic flake look of the Hound Alt and the Digital Toys sale on BTs sucked me into the line. I have a mix of 2 BTs (Smokescreen GT #1 & Tracks) and 2 Alts (Hound & Silverstreak) so far. I definately prefer the nice glossy finish on the BTs. I haven't really had chipping problems yet on the BTs, but I have to admit that I am very paranoid when I transform them. I'm not too worried since I only transform my toys once a month. The quality on the Alts is nice, but I don't like the plasticy look of Smokescreen and Sideswipe (I expect Deadend and Meister to have the same look).

Silverstreak (BT and Alternator) has the steering wheel on the right side as well.

I just placed an order with Digital Toys for the new Smokescreen and Tracks. I couldn't pass up that price! The seller has had the PayPal account for over 4 years and has had over 7000 PayPal transactions. Also, he replied to my email in less than 2 minutes. How does the finish on Alternator Deadend compare to the BT? I decided to go with a BT Smokescreen since the Alternator finish looks plasticy (the missile launcher helped too) whereas the finish on the Alternator Hound looks great.

How much damage can the remaining 10% do? I ask since all the valks that have yellowed have presumably been kept indoors which means that the light went through a window. Does the glass of a cabinet further filter the UV that passed through the window?

If Anakin dies in RotS when he becomes Vader, what is left for Luke to redeem? Anakin is there all along and dies an old man, therefore his ghost should be old. I'm sure that Obi-wan wanted to believe that Anakin had died and that only the body of Anakin remained. Perhaps Obi-wan prefers to think of Anakin and Vader as seperate beings (I think some of his initial statements to Luke support this). Yoda had a more realistic view of Vader. I don't remember any Yoda lines that try to seperate Anakin from Vader. The old ghost shows that Anakin accecpts that he was Vader and that he was responsible for all that he did. The young ghost makes it almost seem that Anakin should not be held responsible for what Vader did - that was someone else (it seems that Lucas has a hard time accecpting that good and bad can exist in the same character). Not to mention that the original actor shouldn't have had his scene cut. It really annoys me that Lucas has little regard for the work that was done by the original cast and effects crew. I've wondered why all the officers are not clones. The entire hier. of the Republic army below the Jedi 'generals' are clones. Why did the structure change so much for the Imperial army. I don't think of the Stormtroopers as elite anymore, it seems to me that they are the grunts. It seems to me that nothing in SW is ever truely cannon - not even the movies. Lucas reserves the right to change everything on a whim.

It looks like Yamato may be decreasing the number of releases to 3-5 a year so that they don't over saturate the market and so that they can focus on others properties as well. I think that Noel's recent report (Wonderfest or something like that) mentioned that Yamato was currently working on the 1/60 Max Q-Rau, 1/100 VB-6, 1/100 VF-0S, 1/100 VF-0A, 1/60 Monster and a 1/48 GBP. This should cover about a years worth of releases. I'm sure we'll see more 1/100 M0 stuff if the initial releases sell well. Yamato may also release more 1/48s (CF, TV Max 1A or other paint varients) once stores have moved the existing inventory.

I picked up a Parks Saber at SDCC about 5 years back. I love the thing. It is a an Echelon with a blue blade and el wire in the hilt. I really like the blue glow within the hilt.

The Ravage BT/Alternator has shown up on Ebay. It's a convertable version of Tracks with a kitty head. Funny thing is that the chest is still a car roof - you know the one that the vehicle mode doesn't have. Ravage Auction

Now that I think about it, Lucas probably changed the ghost scene since he doesn't think the audience is smart enough to associate the old ghost with Anakin. After all, the original SW movies are so complex that few people actually understood the plot.

Star Wars was my life when I was kid - toys, sheets, underoos, records, tapes, comics, books, toothbrush - you name it. However, the passing years along with the revisionism has really turned me off. I never really liked the Greedo thing and the Luke ESB scream since I feel that it changes the characters that I knew so well. Han was a scoundrel - that was what made him cool. Luke was a strong hero who wouldn't scream like a sissy - he did make the decision to let go after all! I don't mind the new scenes here and there as long as they don't change the story or the characters. I'll pass on the DVDs due to my general lack of interest and the Hayden RoTJ scene. This scene really bothers me for some reason. I liked to see the old Anakin. It reinforced to me that he did indeed die redeemed. Now with the young Anakin it almost seems as if his younger self is the only thing that was redeemed and that Luke didn't actually suceed in redeeming the old Anakin. Also, where did he get that outfit? Is he looking to old Ben to see what the current Jedi fashion is?

I'm very happy with my Alpha and plan to pick up a Shadow Alpha to keep it company.

These are Hasbro's attempt to get into the Rescue Heros market. Toy Biz created the Spidey and Friends line a year or so back for the same reason. Believe it or not, this style is popular with some collectors. I think they are cute, but I don't need them.

I picked up an Alpha today as an impulse buy. I'm very happy that I did. I think all the modes look nice. I like the heft and I really like the opening missile bays. This is so much better than the Veritechs. My only complaint is that the arms are a little floppy. What scale is this supposed to be?

Personally, I think investing in stocks (in the current market) is one of the worst things you can do with your money. I don't expect the market to return to 90s levels for quite a few years. The whole .com thing was a bit silly. I'm happy if I get flat performance from my mutual funds right now. Investing in real estate is usually not a bad idea, but I'm not so sure I would want to do that in N. CA since most people agree that the current levels can't be maintained forever. I would hate to spend $1M on a shack only to see the housing market eventually crash and readjust the value to $100K where it belongs. I think people may be selling off Macross simply becuase they acquired too much or are ready to move on. I've sold off some of my 1/60s when I decided that I don't need 10 of the same thing in my cabinet. Also, my interest in collecting the modern Macross toys was born out of the desire to get the perfect representation of the VF-1. I now have that in the form of my 1/48 VF-1S Hikaru Strike. If a 1/48 GBP-1 came out I think I would stop VF-1 collecting all together since I would feel that my collection was truely complete.

Maybe M.K.S. needs to tell George Lucas how a great cast can save a bad script. I think it is a good director along with a great cast that can save a bad script. A bad director usually always ruins a movie.

I saw it Friday afternoon. I didn't really know too much about it (only heard about it a couple of weeks back). The director and what little I knew about the premise were enough for me. I definately enjoyed it. <MUSING BELOW, SPOILER FREE - BUT STILL AVOID IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT> I thought that the plot was fairly easy to figure out. I had guessed the twists long before they played out, but that didn't decrease my enjoyment at all. Even though I was pretty sure what was going to happen, I still enjoyed watching it being carefully played out. I've also spent a lot of time going over the plot and filling in the blanks. There is a little more going on than what is on the screen.

It looks to me like everything in the RM line was based on an existing design - except Starscream. Therefore, I've always had a feeling that a MP Starscream may be in the works. Maybe we'll see something at OTFCC-or whatever the heck the con is called.

I really disliked E1. I found most all the characters to be flat, if not downright laughable. I personaly think George is a poor director. He took good performers like Liam and Jackson and turned them into drones. I thought the plot was shallow - even by Star Wars standards. I found the that blowing up the control ship by chance was a little too easy. I also found the defeat of the droid army to be too easy. Don't you think there would have been a back up system as opposed to a single control ship? The thing I disliked the most was the midi-needsimplemindedwaytofindanakin-whatchamacallits. Their only purpose was to identify Anakin's potential. Why couldn't Anakin have been this kid that was always different and always had special powers he didn't understand (I think he did have prophetic dreams in the E1 novel)? Qui-gon could have sensed or outright observed this power and therefore decided to take Anakin with him. I liked E2 a lot more. It really started to feel more like SW. I like that the clones were the precursors of the Stormtroopers. I don't feel that they needed to be based off Fett, but that is a minor point to me. I also feel that the technology fit in with the SW look a lot more. I I'll give E3 a try, but may have to wait for the DVD since I only see about 1 movie per summer in the theater and I'm a little more excited about Batman Begins than E3. I find it funny that the characters have ended up on Tatooine in 4 out of 5 movies so far. It's supposed to be a remote place in the middle of nowhere, but it turns out that it is the center of events for this saga. Almost everybody who is somebody has been there at one point or another. I'm sure Yoda vacations there.

Is that life size Hound transformable?

A BT Mini-Cooper is up for preorder at bigbadtoystore.com. He's got seats for feets They also have pictures of the Superlink combiners.

I think the term toy can be a source of confusion. There are toys that are children's playthings. These are usually cheap and sturdy. There are also toys that are targeted for collectors. They may resemble children's toys to the casual observer, but they are really quite different. They are usually more detailed and they are not meant to be played with like a child's toy. In some cases they are closer to a model than to a toy. They also usually have a much smaller production run. This all influences the price (as does the target audience, competition, manufacturing complexity and a whole host of other factors). Also, this is nothing new. Just ask a Barbie collector who is used to spending $200 for a doll that the average person would probably mistake for a $20 child's plaything. Unfortunately collectibles are expensive.Take a look at the die-cast collectibles (some would call them toys) from Code 3 - $70 for a 1/64 Firetruck and $300 for an X-wing that is roughly the same size as a 1/48.